Dracula: Untold...Shouldn't have been told.

Check out my youtube review HERE!!!

Dracula is a classic character from a classic property; of course that means it's time for Hollywood to ruin said character. Now the vampire genre hasn't been in the place for the past few years as there was this little thing called Twilight that made the genre lose the respect it once had. Dracula: Untold is not only an attempt to bring back the horror and action roots of vampire movies but is also the first in the series of remakes bringing back Universal's classic monsters. Unfortunately that's all it is, an attempt and not a successful attempt either.

Dracula:Untold is the feature début of Gary Shore and stars Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon and Dominic Cooper. This iteration of the iconic character goes to it's historical root of the character being based on Vlad the Impaler. Of course other than the name and impaling the rest of the film is in a fantasy world. Dracula: Untold takes this classic character and mythology and creates a film meant for the Lord of the Rings and Superhero generation but unfortunately it is not nearly as exciting or engaging.

The script of this film is an utter failure and I would advise any would be writers to look to this film for what not to do. Though it tells the beginning middle and end of a story it makes no attempt to make this story compelling, these characters more than two dimensional or even a reason for this film to be made. Add to that laughable dialogue and a large number of your usual clichés and you've got yourself a waste of time. This film is by the numbers if the numbers equal zero because that is the amount of possible reasons for this film to be made.

The actors sleepwalk through their roles but it's hard to blame them when they're given material this weak. Sarah Gadon is at least as gorgeous as ever though that isn't enough of a reason to watch this movie. The action is rather bland and incomprehensible, partly the fault of the M(PG13+) rating and the rest of the blame on poor staging, editing and lame CGI. The art direction is also quite campy and the music too forced. This film is truly the product of a studio with no real heart in the production and if you'd excuse the pun it is an example of a truly soulless movie.

With that said I didn't out right hate this movie like I did transformers. This film at least had the decency not to be self indulgent and at a swift ninety minutes it was over and I was free to forget all about it (once this review is published of course). This film is bad and with no redeeming features; to make things worse this was shot on film and what a waste of film it is. This is what happens when a studio is entirely in control of a movies; it becomes a soulless enterprise that is just a waste of my time.

1 1/2 out of 5 stars.

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